The present invention relates to service provision for IP telephony network systems and subscribers to such systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to providing for multiple service providers per subscriber on a single IP telephony network system.
In current telephone networks, users receive service from a single, licensed monopoly telephone company service provider. This structure is primarily enforced through a physical association between the copper loop that provides network access and the telephone company""s switching equipment. The present invention utilizes an IP network capable of supporting multiple service providers and their service offerings from a single terminal or access infrastructure.
The Telecom Reform Act of 1996 resulted in a government mandate to xe2x80x9cunbundlexe2x80x9d services within the telephone network. Multiple unbundling points were identified and defined including the copper loop interface at the main distribution frame in the central office and T1 channel bank or TR-303 systems. This gives competing telephone companies a means for providing services to subscribers using the monopoly telephone company""s existing loop plant. The competing telephone companies achieve this by xe2x80x9cswingingxe2x80x9d lines (rewiring) to their equipment.
This solution has several shortcomings, however. It is subject to line scale granularity meaning the entire phone service for the local loop moves at once. Moving a line requires manual intervention in order to physically rewire connections. This can be prohibitively expensive, especially since it requires explicit cooperation from the incumbent telephone company. Moreover, service access is limited to those firms which are registered local exchange telephone companies.
Currently, in H.323 processing the zone manager and service control unit (SCU) is a single undivided concept. The present invention promotes the idea of having more than one service provider (SCU) serving a single subscriber. This is done by splitting the zone manager and SCU into separate concepts allowing for an unrelated, even dynamic, allocation of an SCU to a zone.
By using H.323 capability in a gatekeeper to identify call signaling transfer addresses used for each call, subscriber services can theoretically be provided by different service providers on a per call basis. For example, one subscriber service can be provided by a first service provider while a second subscriber service may be provided by a second service provider, and so on. In practice, service subscription data is based on the address or alias being used to place or receive a call. Since IP telephones can have the ability to register multiple aliases simultaneously, the same phone can receive service from multiple providers simultaneously. In addition, it is possible that some of the aliases used may be part of a private address space such as, for instance, a private branch exchange (PBX) system. This would enable service from a provider that is not a registered public telephone service provider for work-at-home and telecommuting subscribers.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.